[3] Simard had a lengthy criminal record with convictions for extortion, possession of illegal weapons, and bank robbery.
[4] Cotroni allowed Simard to drink the cognac he had smuggled into the Parthenais prison while he advised him that bank robbery was both dangerous and not very profitable form of crime.
[1] Simard stated he found from Cotroni the "love, attention, friendship" that he never experienced in the broken home he had grown up in, adding "I had to take care of him.
[5] Simard described a typical case as that of one Italian-Canadian woman who wanted the help of the Cotroni family to leave her abusive French-Canadian husband.
[5] Besides being in a high-paying position, Simard watched countless young women strip for him as part of their auditions for Prestige Entertainment along with other benefits.
[5] Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of the Toronto Star, wrote that Simard was a "vain, handsome young French-Canadian" who "fancied himself a yuppie who married an appreciation for the finer material things in life with a sensitivity that included a love for children and a fear of blood".
[2] Simard served as a bodyguard-chauffeur for Cotroni, driving him from his Rosemount house to various restaurants and bars in downtown Montreal.
[2] In early 1980, as Simard was driving Cotroni home, he told him, "Réal, I want you to make a big step".
[5] In St. Adèle, Marion was eating breakfast in a restaurant while Simard walked in wearing his usual expensive designer clothes and with a gun hidden in a folded newspaper.
[7] Simard killed Marion while he was eating breakfast at a diner, shooting twice in the chest and then gave him the coup de grâce on Frank's order.
[9] For Simard, being kissed on the cheek by his boss proved that he was an important member of the Cotroni family, and was now a powerful man.
[8] Simard planned to kidnap Montegano at the Agrigento Social Club along with his friends Daniel Arena and Francesco Raso and then kill him at a secluded place in the countryside.
[7] However, Montegano sensed a betrayal as he entered the Agrigento Social Club and attempted to flee, leading to Simard shooting him in the back.
[12] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote that Pozza "...was considered something of a financial whiz among a group whose literacy level was questionable at best".
[16] In July 1983, Simard moved to Ontario where he met with Johnny Papalia in Hamilton on behalf of Frank Cotroni.
[17] At their first meeting at Hanrahan's strip bar in Hamilton, the atmosphere was tense with Papalia clearly unhappy about the prospect of the Cotroni family moving into Ontario while Simard had a brash and cocky attitude.
[19] Simard seized the Ontario market, bringing in Quebec strippers to Toronto strip clubs, where he in turn allowed Papalia to put his pinball machines.
[21] The Satan's Choice hitman Cecil Kirby reported a rumour in the underworld that Vic Cotroni had personally ordered Volpe's murder.
[23] Domenic Racco, the leader of the Siderno Group, was an immature man with substance abuse problems who was not well regarded in the underworld, while the Commisso brothers had been imprisoned in 1982 after Kirby testified against them.
[13] Simard called Cotroni in Montreal and received permission to kill Hétu and Héroux after he accused both of stealing.
[29] The Toronto police found a blood-soaked Hétu still alive in room 345 with his "shattered jaw hanging by a bloody sinew".
[27] Simard was due to return to Montreal soon anyhow as Cotroni wanted him to murder the boxing promoter George Cherry.
[30][31][32] The police launched Operation Si-Co (Simard-Cotroni) which led to the arrests of Cotroni, his son Francesco, Faber, Arena and Raso.
[33] At the time of his arrest, Faber was on the brink of moving to Acapulco where he planned to set up a pipeline for smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Montreal.
[36] After being released on early parole in 1990, Simard went into witness protection as the Cotroni family had put a price on his life.
[36] Simard stated: "Whatever action one takes will ultimately return to that person-good or bad-maybe not in this life embodiment, but sometime in the future.
[36] In a 1990 interview with Edwards, Simard accused Cotroni of being responsible for the murder of a well known Montreal lawyer, Frank Shoofey, who was killed execution-style in his law office on 15 October 1985.
[38] Subsequently, Simard turned to welfare fraud to support himself, cheating the Quebec government of some $13,000, which led to his parole being revoked.
[38] After being arrested in 1999 on charges of welfare fraud, Simard escaped and was discovered in October 2004 to be working as a security guard at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, a private high school in Montreal.